Questions on tank cleaning practices

[JONP]

I'm about to do a major cleaning and I'm curious as to how others do this? I regulary do a 20% water change weekly and clean my water pumps and filter system once a month. My tank has been up for a year and I'm starting to notice the rocks turning darker and the glass isn't as clear at it should be.

Does anyone have any "best practices" on major cleaning?

I'm also interested on preventative maintenance like :
Sand or Rocks - What is easier to maintain?
Wet or Dry Foods - What is cleaner?

75 gallon freshwater
2 red zebra
1 lemon yellow
1 albino cichlid
2 german peacocks
1 compressiceps
3 loaches

thanks in advance...

 

[thatonegirl]

I honestly hate the practice of enlisting a fish to do a job in any tank... but Chinese algae eaters are awesome cleaners in an AC tank. And if your Africans want to pick a fight, the CAE will pick right back.

As far as sand vs. gravel goes, I think sand is much cleaner because waste does not sink down into the nooks and crannies that gravel has. Flipside to that is that all that crud settles on the surface of the sand and is very visible. I like dry foods for African cichlids. They're so damn greedy that hardly anything goes to waste. I avoid frozen foods for ACs.

 

[tunerX]

I prefer course sand or course sand-like material. It can compact and keep the majority of the fish waste on top.

Use substrate current like under gravel jets to keep waste moving and monitor the tank to see where the waste settles (dead spots). Adjust your current to flow in those areas. The longer you keep the waste suspended the greater the chance it has to make it into a filter intake.

For food, I think it depends on the fish. I like to feed larger foods to larger predators so they need to eat less. In any case feed enough. Depending on the fish and age of the fish you can feed every other day, or feed for a couple days then skip a day.

 

[bigdoug]

I prefer Pool filter sand, easy to clean and does not suspend in the water.. As far as feeding, i use NLS. 40% water change per week, and only clean filters when the flow slows down.